Infantry Training Battalion

[zackmerc]

Hello,

Any Marines, preferrably Infantry Marines who have gone through School of Infantry, can you tell me what training is like? Besides learning hand signals and firing different kinds of weapons, what do you do?
Do younlearn maneuvers, offensive tactics, etc?

I am hoping to be a 0311 Rifleman or 0331 Machine Gunner

[SkilletsUSMC]

ITB is where you actually learn combat skills as opposed to boot camp which teaches dicipline. Keep in mind when you arive at SOI, you are not an 03xx you are a either "9900 Basic Marine", or "9971 Basic Marines with contract garantee" you will be segregated form your old Bootcamp buddies By MOS, 03xx hopefulls on one side, everyone else on the other.

You will spend about 3 days/two weeks sitting arround in recieving which to be honest was probably the worst part of the whole SOI experience. After spending time in what will feel like county lock down, you will move on to your training company. This is where things finally get good. The troop handlers will still be firm with you, but you have earned the title Marine, and so you rate to be talked to like a living creature.

The first three weeks are 0300, and you learn what all basic Grunts must know. The M67 fragmentary grendades, the M203 grenade launcher, the M249 SAW, and you will spent some time getting to use the AN/PVS 14B night vision goggles. You will also learn Basic combat formations, patrolling, hand and arm signals, Field craft(how to live right in the field), the correct way to pack a pack. (the bootcamp way is just craming things in tight as hell.) how to understand 5 paragraph orders. and a whole lot of humps....

Once your 3 week 0300 is training is up, you will be split off into actual MOSs like 0311 rifleman, 0331 machinegunner, 0341 mortorman, 0351 assualtman.(I cant tell you much about anything other than 0311, so maybe someone else can chime in)

When you break off into the 0311 group, say good bye to the chow hall. Revillie will be at 0300 and you will be sitting on the "H" eatng MREs by 0330. this to me is where the fun begins. This is where you start to learn real infantry tactics. Youll spend lots of time on livefire ranges Fire and manuver, ranges, humping up to the alpha shelf and digging fighting holes, learning cotrol messures, how to ambush enemy patrols and how to react to being ambushed yourself.

After that, you will spend AT LEAST 1-2 weeks training MOUT Military Opperations on Urbanized Terrain. you should be paying attention to all yopur classes, but for deffinately PAY ATTENTION to this portion. Urban fighting is the hardest type of comabat there is, and it is the reality of 21st century warfare.

At the end of every day/night you will spend LOTS of time cleaning weapons. They reinforce what is learned at bootcamp that weapons maitainance comes before Chow or sleep.

The whole thing ends with one giant illuminated night attack, combined arms range, with your old buddies the Machine gunners and mortarmen in support. youll assault those evil Ivan target bastards with Machineguns cracking over your head, and Mortars providing constant illumination. Its serrious buisness, but to be honnest it was alot of fun.

I hope this helps. There are countless things I have left out because this post would be two pages long, but that is the basic idea of what you will learn at SOI/ITB.

[zackmerc]

Everyones till does PT right? I'd hate to lose all the physical strength that would be built after boot camp.

[SkilletsUSMC]

You will still PT but not like you will once you get to the fleet, or the way you did in Bootcamp. All of that stuff I just mentioned is physically difficult, so you wont be sitting arround getting fat. Most PT is easier than doing a rush range or an urban assualt with a full combat load.

[Quinbo]

I would like to add that running to every range and training area that you go to in full combat gear carrying a weapon is all the PT you will want for the day and you have just gotten started.

[zackmerc]

What about the hiking in Camp Pendleton? I heard it's very hilly there. Is the weather at least good in the winter months?

[rvillac2]

You're from LA. You can see the "hills" of Camp Pendleton from the freeway.

Civilians go on hikes. Marines and Recruits go on Humps. If you're short, you'll be going on Runs. ha ha ha.
Little end up!!!

[Eric Hood]

OHH-RAH!!! I was curious about SOI. I went through the old ITS at San Onofry in 1979.
Thanks,
Eric

[Daniel M]

usmc-soi-itb-schedule-overview.jpg
I found a very poor quality image of a slip of paper that had the training overview for SOI ITB, right before I started the training. That image has since been wiped off of the internet, but luckily for you guys I saved it to my phone. I've created a better quality image by deciphering the old photo and making a table on Word, rewriting it, adding notes, saving the document as a PDF, then converting it to a JPG.

I had to do it because no one cares about the lowly grunt. They have training matrices for both MCRDs and for SOI MCT readily available, but not for SOI ITB. I hope this helps future door kickers and dealers of death.

[Tennessee Top]

It would. If I could read it! lol

[Daniel M]

GO TO MY PROFILE GALLERY FOR THE IMAGE

Trying to upload it in the thread degraded the image.

[Daniel M]

My tiny grunt brain can't figure out how to upload a good quality image onto this website. Maybe I'll figure it out soon. For now all I've got is the unintelligible image on this thread, two slightly more intelligible images on my profiles gallery, and a link to the word document in the description on one of those photos. Nothing seems to be working for me. I'll try to figure it out soon because I think that it's important for these new privates to have some form of information on what is in store for them.

[FoxtrotOscar]

SOI.jpg

[Daniel M]

That is the training matrix for SOI MCT, which is for non infantry MOSs and is only a little over 4 weeks long. SOI ITB is for infantry MOSs and is a little over 9 weeks long.

[Tennessee Top]

When you do get it figured out. You should probably start a brand new thread since this one is 10 years old.